In the medical field, diagnostic image interpretation is performed to determine a patient's illness, by using CT (Computed Tomography) images captured at different time periods, and comparing the images of a diseased portion or a portion suspected to be diseased, by a radiographic image interpreting doctor, etc.
Patent Document 1: Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2013-141603
In the case of a patient having a tumor (for example, an adenocarcinoma) in the lung, there is a characteristic of the alveoli collapsing due to the tumor, and accordingly, the positions of the surrounding tissue, such as blood vessels, shifting in position, so as to converge around the collapsed position. Additionally, a lung varies in shape (deforms) due to the influence of the patient's respiration and heartbeat. Therefore, unless the image interpreting doctor is highly experienced, it is difficult to find the convergence around the tumor based on a CT image obtained by capturing an image of the lung and determine that the tumor is an adenocarcinoma.